The Global Travel Retail Summit, organised by DFNI publisher Raven Fox, was judged a stunning success by many of the 240 delegates who attended the event in London last week.

The announcement of a second Asian duty-free exhibition and conference?to be held in Busan, South Korea in November?has aroused controversy in the trade. So will the show now take place? Does the industry need another event? DFNI puts the hard questions to KEMA.

People news and moves from the travel-retail circuit.

What is the basis for the WHO?s argument? Firstly, any government that signs up to the final treaty, to be signed in 2003, will have to abide by all of its provisions, which could include a duty-free tobacco ban.

Mark McKenzie is managing director of ER Partners, a specialist travel-retail consultancy with offices in London, Singapore and Sydney. The company is developing a global partnership with IBM to create integrated Customer Relationship Marketing programmes for travel retailers. He argues that travel-retail needs to adapt to a new marketplace and a new consumer.

Do the world?s leading cigarette suppliers know their customers and target them to good effect? One supplier tells DFNI he expects his investment in airport advertising to deliver no more than a 65% return from his targeted travelling consumers. So who are the leading firms trying to attract, and how are they responding? Dermot Davitt investigates.

Act now or lose the business is the message coming across loud and clear throughout the industry in the face of the World Health Organization?s proposed ban on duty-free tobacco. It?s not a new message, yet it is being heeded in only a few regions, and so far to little effect. So just what is at stake? What is the nature of the WHO proposal and what measures are required to combat it? DFNI takes a look at the biggest threat to the industry since intra-EU duty-free abolition two years ago.

Watch any Formula One grand prix and you?ll see the world?s leading cigarette brands staring back from your TV. But how are the leading companies translating their presence into effective marketing to duty-free consumers? DFNI spoke to German manufacturer Reemtsma, whose West brand is leading the charge into sports-related cigarette promotions.

UK. Former Alpha Retail senior executive Liz Woodland has created her own company, Consulting for Retail.

Caribbean holding company dutyfree.com is best known for regional retail operations such as Colombian Emeralds International. But as consumers become more technology-aware, the dotcom part of the title may come to more fully represent the company?s activities. DFNI talks to the man pressing the buttons, president and owner Stephen Crane.

FRANCE. The biggest travel retailer in France, Aeroboutique-Duty Free Associates, has revealed its new trading name. The company formed following the merger of Aeroboutique and Saresco will be known as Aelia, with a freshly created logo on the drawing board.

The sheer dynamism and substance of most of the presentations at the first Global Travel Retail Summit told us all we have a future to be positive about in this industry. From Ed Brennan?s powerful articulation of DFS? vision and its memorable sense of ?local wonder?, to Randy Emch?s affirmation of the future of a traditional business in South America, reasons for confidence abounded.

UK. In a dramatic boost to its UK business, Alpha Retail will replace incumbent The Nuance Group as the anchor retailer at Manchester airport terminals two and three from next January.

SOUTH KOREA. The organiser of the proposed Duty Free Korea exhibition, to be held in Busan in November, insists there is room for another Asian show to rival Tax Free Asia Pacific, and has hit back at criticism by Tax Free World Association (TFWA).

UK. Former Alpha Retail senior executive Liz Woodland has created her own company, Consulting for Retail.

HAWAII. Leading travel retailer Liberty House has been acquired by Federated Department Stores, owner of Macy?s.

US/PANAMA. World Duty Free Americas (WDFA) has completed the sale of its export division to Panamanian retailer Motta Internacional, giving the company a foothold in the US.

AUSTRALIA. The Nuance Group (Australia) has announced the opening of a new Downtown Duty Free store in the domestic terminal at Cairns airport.

UK. Inflight Sales Group (ISG) director Jean-Marcel Rouff has called on airlines to see inflight retail ?more as a passenger service than a retail business?. Speaking to DFNI after last week?s Global Travel Retail Summit, he also unveiled plans to lift revenues onboard the concessionaire?s client carriers.

SOUTH KOREA. Lotte Duty Free Stores is aiming to achieve $800m in sales in 2001, despite the slowdown in the South Korean economy, the company has told DFNI.

AUSTRALIA. The Nuance Group (Australia) has gained a 10-year extension to its duty-free concession at Perth International airport, as exclusively revealed by DFNI sister magazine Travel Retailer International.

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND. WH Smith has acquired the Blue Star Consumer Retailing Group for NZ$126m ($52m), an operation that includes retail locations at several Australian and New Zealand airports.